Lost at Thieves
by Fiery Crusader
Summary: With the world saved from the brink of war and a destructive deity, Finn and his friends are given the chance to live their lives well and freely. But as fate would have it, another disaster strikes not long after and once again the human is tasked with confronting loss and hardships. Will he prevail as he did in the past or will he fall into a state of darkness?


Two years have passed since the world was saved. A truce was made between two rivaling Candy civilizations before they could resort to war, and the destructive deity known as GOLB was banished before he could incite complete chaos. Although victory was achieved, it was not without sacrifice. Troops from both Candy forces were lost from combating GOLB and his mutated army. Fern and Betty Grof were also lost, but managed to achieve their personal goals. For Fern, he was able to purge the Grass Demon who had corrupted him into fighting his friends in the past. As for Betty, she used the Ice Crown's wishing capabilities to keep her partner Simon Petrikov safe at all costs. The result of the wish unfortunately caused her to merge with GOLB himself so that he would never have the chance act alone with his destructive nature.

Since then, the land of Ooo recovered. The last humans that were lead by Minerva Mertens had decided to settle and coexist with the local population, and life continued to flourish. Her nineteen year-old son, Finn Mertens was able to convince them into leaving behind a lifestyle of isolation and he was able to make peace with Fern before the latter passed on. Simon was able to live normally and freely from the Ice Crown's curse so he could watch over his adoptive daughter Marceline Abadeer, while Gunther the penguin assumed the crown and became a friendlier version of the Ice King. On that same token, Marceline and Princess Bubblegum had rekindled their relationship and have dated actively since.

Progress was made as the cities of Ooo's kingdoms expanded. With the humans and Oooacians living together in harmony, the onset of war seemed absent. However, a small minority on both sides did not seem fond of each other. On one hand, the humans were known for causing the near destruction from the Mushroom War, while the creatures of Ooo were deemed inferior from their counterparts. Only small incidents were made between the species, but none of them involved any key figures to take immediate action. Unfortunately, one human virologist decided go on extreme lengths and as a result plundered the world into another age of turmoil.

* * *

It was a festive morning as Ooo celebrated its second anniversary of establishing peace between humans. Stores were crowded from customers eager to buy products early at discounted prices and a huge parade event took place across all cities. Although most purchases involved accessories such as cosmetics and electronics, everyone spent their money to their hearts content. Families went out together eating and enjoying the festivities, while the local authorities worked hard to maintain order.

One week later, people from both the humans and Oooacians began exhibiting symptoms of illness. What started off as as simple cough at first began to grow severe into a full on fever. Medical facilities were starting to become overwhelmed with the incoming wave of patients and public safety began to feel threatened. Although several forms of magic and medicine were administered to combat whatever the patients were diagnosed with, it seemed flu-like virus was able to adapt quickly and therefore remain at large. Despite the fact however, the leaders tried to assure the situation was controlled and that they emphasized the public to wear protective clothing or to stay indoors. But when some of the patients began to die off in a matter of days, tensions began to rise as the leaders immediately quarantined their own cities. Not long after, pandemonium broke out in the streets as the locals fought each other over scarce resources and separated families. A large-scale of martial law had taken effect across Ooo, but even that seemed to make things worse. The people were confused as to how and why such an outbreak happened, and civilization ultimately fell apart once again with key infrastructures shutting down. Princess Bubblegum along with Minerva, Simon, and Doctor Princess worked tirelessly to create a vaccine, but have made little progress as the rioters and criminals drove them away from their research facilities. The four have been forced to start over again by establishing a temporary base at the coastline, but with most of their notes and samples left behind, the situation continued to be bleak.

Finn Mertens felt devastated at the events that transpired. He thought the world had suffered long enough after its history, but was saddened as another hardship claimed a multitude of innocent lives. He hated feeling helpless as the days went on, but he vowed to restore order by performing tasks for Princess Bubblegum in hopes she would find a cure. Recently, he had lived his life well with the prospect of pursuing romance with Flame Princess once more. But when disaster struck, the human reluctantly dropped everything and committed the rest of his life at becoming a peacekeeper. Each night before he went to sleep, he would always recall his last conversation with the fiery elemental.

* * *

_"I'm sorry, Phebes," Finn stated solemnly on the phone. "I don't want to make any more promises until this is over."_

_"I understand," she nodded with tears quietly running down her face. "Just be careful okay? I'm.. worried about you."_

* * *

A few more months have passed since then, but Finn still remembers hearing her angelic voice like it was yesterday. One day when Finn returned to the temporary base of operations, he learned the tragic news that Phoebe was assassinated by her brother Flint for having a disagreement over leadership. Ever since then, the Fire Kingdom had split into two factions. Flint's side was committed to ridding the disease by burning everything on sight, while Phoebe's loyalists sought to maintain peace and help find a cure with the neighboring kingdoms. Finn never thought he would have such hatred over someone he once thought was his friend, but he vowed to exact his revenge given the chance. In the meantime, he spent countless missions saving settlements, recovering scientific data, and gathering loot and weapons. Hundreds and thousands of lives were saved because of his efforts, but the human worked relentlessly as he was still unsatisfied with Ooo's overall fallen state. As one observer would put it, it would still take nearly a decade for the world to truly recover.

Suddenly, Finn was called over to meet with Princess Bubblegum and the other three leading scientists. He had only four hours of sleep from his latest mission, but he still felt determined to stay awake. In fact what he learned that day actually renewed his energy like a shot of adrenaline.

"We have intel concerning the one responsible for virus outbreak," Princess Bubblegum began. "This video footage you managed to recover shows that this virus was created by a man identified as Gordon Armherst."

"Aye, I've heard of him," Minerva frowned as she crossed her arms. "That idiot was in his own league when it came to being absolutely nuts. He was never friendly with his colleagues and he always tried causing riots during lectures. Frankly I'm surprised he managed to keep his position as long as he did. He practically should have been arrested long ago."

PB glanced at her and replied, "I wish that were the case but I digress. The man has remained well in hiding after he unleashed the virus. Turns out he poisoned various forms of currency in his possession such as gold, gems, and bills and had them circulated during the second anniversary of peace. It's a modified 'superbug' containing at least six of humanity's most dangerous diseases. And although I could continue to explain what each of them are how deadly they can be, I'll skip the details and move on to the next topic."

"That being?" Minerva asked.

"The disease is highly contagious and complex," PB explained as she looked down and took off her glasses briefly to pinch the bridge of her nose. "It constantly mutates whenever it seems like we find a breakthrough and we're always thrown back to square one."

Finn spoke up, "This is probably going to sound like a dumb question, but have you tried wishing for a cure or that it would just go away?"

The four scientists glanced at each other solemnly before Simon replied, "It turns out that Armherst covered his bases, unfortunately. Past reports indicate that he had sought for a wishmaster prior to the outbreak and had his virus remain impervious to such methods. While it may seem impossible to solve at this point, the only upside is that he is the only one who possesses the knowledge for the cure."

"Neat," Finn curtly nodded. "Where do I find him?"

"He was last seen making his way to the Badlands," PB answered frowning. "More specifically, the City of Thieves."

From that moment, the room was silent for the longest minute until Finn calmly replied, "I'll be ready in ten minutes."

Before PB would protest since she recalled his last visit to that place many years ago, Minerva placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "Let me talk to him."

The Candy monarch nodded and moments later it was just Finn and his mother.

"I know how painful it was to lose yourself in that place," Minerva stated with empathy. "You once saw the the world for being simply black and white that it devastated you when you realized it wasn't the case."

Finn looked down in acceptance and a tear slid down his face silently, "I'm sorry, mom. But to tell you the truth, it's not those memories bothering me. I'm more troubled over the fact about how we lost nearly everything again." He stopped as his vision became blurry with more tears, "Phoebe is gone.. my brother Jake is gone.. and his whole family is gone too." The hero then broke down and hugged his mother for comfort.

Even though Minerva wanted to speak up, she patted his back in comfort to have him continue.

After a couple minutes of sobbing, Finn finally said, "I have no idea what will happen if I go there. But even though I'm afraid to relive those bad memories, nothing hurts me more than seeing myself being selfish and saying I can't go. That crazy scientist guy is the only key to solving this whole thing and I don't want the ones I lost to die in vain."

Finn's mom placed a soft kiss on his forehead before she replied, "I'm proud of you, son. If there is anything I learned when you showed me all those memories is that YOU are strong, no matter what." She mustered a smile, "You had plenty of times to give up, but you chose to power through regardless of the fact. And while it pains me to say that I was not there for you, you were at least raised by parents who taught you the same virtues that I would have instilled upon you."

He sniffed as he slowly recomposed himself.

"No matter what happens," she concluded. "I love you for who you are. Every hardship that you have and will endure will only make you stronger as a character. I won't judge you, but just know that I'm here if you need to talk to me about anything, okay?"

"Yeah," he nodded as he felt his pain subside. "Thanks mom."

"And on that note, you should get food and plenty of rest!" she advised with a smirk. "I may have let you gotten away with it in the past, but today I'm making an exception."

He sighed as he hung his shoulders and mumbled, "Yes."

She arched an eyebrow and quipped, "What?"

Finn grimaced in embarrassment, "Er.. Yes, mom."

As the human retired for bed, Minerva stood alone contemplating her thoughts. A part of her still wanted her son sheltered from life's hardships despite knowing the facts, but at the same time she knew she had to invest her faith in him. Her son was his own person now. He had shown strength and maturity than most of his peers, and he had proven to survive on his own where others would not. Although she had no idea what tomorrow would offer, she did know for a fact that it was going to be a defining moment not for just Finn, but for the world as well. That said, she had her androids draw up plans for the following mission and organized Finn's loadout and gear all while she could hope for the best.

* * *

**AN**: Hope everyone enjoyed the intro so far. It'll be a short story at best, but I still tend to post chapters as separate scenes altogether. And despite the underlying theme, I do plan to have Finn paired up with at least two ladies (so expect some plot and lemons mixed in together). Their names weren't found on the character list, but I suppose it's best to keep it a surprise. Anyway, feel free to leave a review.


End file.
